After leaving the city for several miles, Deng Ming and the others stopped. Tonight it was windy and cloudy, the moon and stars were nowhere to be seen, and a storm seemed to be brewing in the dark sky. Deng Ming kept looking in the direction of the road, and in the deep night he could only faintly see a few red dots, probably the torch lit by the Kunming guards at the head of the city, and he couldn't see anything else.

Suddenly, it was as if there was a flash, but instead of the usual white light, a red mist suddenly rose in the boundless darkness, and half of the sky was reflected in red. Before the red light appeared, the surrounding scenery was hidden in the night sè that could not be seen, but the red light reflected the mountains, lakes, grass and trees, and also reflected the gray city towers and city walls in the distance, and the outline of Kunming City emerged, followed by a thunderous roar, and the horses that everyone sat down were restless, and they all snorted.

"Good guys!" Zhou Kaihuang was already a little impatient in the dark, waiting anxiously all the time, but when this moment finally came, he felt that the earth around him seemed to tremble.

In the Qing army camp next to the arsenal a few miles away, the soldiers' feelings were completely different from Zhou Kaihuang's.

Before the people outside the city were unaware, the night watchman and patrol of this barracks noticed that the arsenal seemed to be a little unusual, and saw a red light coming out from behind the storage area - in the warehouses where leather, cotton, and clothes were stored, the fuse was much shorter, and their incense candles were lit first, so they started the fire first. The leather storehouse was the first to catch fire, and the roof was quickly burned through, and the incense candles used to light the powder magazine were not yet burned.

Several patrolmen who noticed the abnormality discussed for a while, and felt that the red light from behind the wall of the reservoir area did not look like a normal phenomenon, and an officer thought about it for a while, and led a few people to the door of the warehouse to ask questions, but even if they shouted through their throats, there was no one inside to answer. At this time, several warehouses had begun to burn, and the fuse of the gunpowder warehouse had also burned into the warehouse, but the Qing soldiers outside the gate did not know the danger, they saw that the red light was getting thicker and thicker, and there were bursts of smoke, and they knew that something was wrong in the warehouse.

After a few more shouts, the officer ordered the door to be pushed, but the heavy gate did not move. The officer knew that there was a side door in the warehouse area that allowed people to enter and exit temporarily, but this side door was also locked. Seeing that the two doors were impassable, and no one answered, the officer no longer hesitated, and decided to order to climb over the X wall and enter to open the door - he didn't know that the deadbolt inside was also locked by Deng Ming.

The officer also turned around and ordered one of the soldiers behind him to run back to the camp, waking up the whole battalion to help put out the fire. As an army stationed next to the warehouse, the officer knew that there were tanks in the warehouse where a large amount of cold water was stored, and there were many wells that had been specially dug out, and each well had a small pedal water truck for pumping water.

Several soldiers stacked up the wall and tried to climb over it, and another soldier understood the officer's order, turned around and ran in the direction of the barracks. At this moment, the officer suddenly felt as if the world around him had suddenly become brighter, as if it had suddenly been from midnight to noon: the stones on the side of the road, the streets around him, the clothes and faces of the soldiers seemed as clear as daylight......

Before the officer could doubt the vision before him, he felt as if he had suddenly risen through the clouds, his head rumbled, and the scene before him changed and distorted rapidly, and there seemed to be a light around him, and it seemed as if it was pitch black, and he could see nothing. As the officer regained his ability to look around, he found himself lying on the ground, his chin feeling sticky, and he reached out to wipe it, and by the light around him he saw that his hands were covered with blood—his own blood, but he didn't feel any pain.

The officer struggled to stand up, but felt his waist and legs go limp, somewhat similar to the feeling after being drunk. When he was struggling on the ground, he saw that the soldiers around him were also rolling on the ground one by one, and the soldiers who were about to climb over the X wall just now were lying motionless on the ground, and one person was lying on his back facing the sky, and his facial features were bleeding from the shock. There was also a soldier whose face was covered in bruises and blood as if he was shouting something at him, and the officer could only see the soldier making some movements with his mouth wide open, but he could not hear a word, and there seemed to be several large bells ringing in his head. Not only could he not hear anything, but each time the bell struck, the officer's body went limp, and he almost fell to the ground again.

At this time, the officer wondered, why was the surroundings so bright? He raised his head to look at the sky, and saw that the top of the reservoir area seemed to be setting off fireworks, and from time to time clusters of fireworks flew into the night sky. The first explosion was followed by a series of explosions, followed by the remnants of gunpowder and other warehouses containing saltpeter and brimstone, as well as the warehouses where cloth and cotton were now stored.

However, it is far less astonishing than the first explosion, when the violent explosion of the first earthquake lifted the entire gunpowder warehouse and the roofs and four walls of several small warehouses around it, and a gun weighing 1,000 pounds in the gun warehouse next door was also sent into the air by the shock wave, and the cannon was like a poker card that was thrown up, flipped and danced in the air, until it flew over the outer wall of the reservoir area, and fell to the far side of the city.

Other gunpowder bags and sulfur thrown into the air flew up dozens of meters high, exploded and burned in the air, turning into a rain of fire in the sky, pouring down with a bang. At this time, the ground around the officer was full of these hot fire particles, and the top of the reservoir area in front of him was a sky-high fire, blowing a scorching wind around, and the continuous explosions of the warehouse sent more fireworks into the air, and the whole reservoir area now looked like an erupting crater, constantly spewing red light, smoke, and a rain of fire that lit up the night sky.

After a few burns from the fire falling overhead, the officer struggled to his feet, looking at the flickering sparks on the ground—these flickering red sè particles were densely spread all over the land, and no one knew how much the explosion had just sprayed. Behind the officers, a lot of grass and planks were falling on the streets and rooftops of the uninhabited houses, and the smell was rapidly becoming stronger, mixed with the smell of sulphur that permeated the air. In fact, these fires fell from here to a few blocks away, but the density was different.

Raising his head again, the officer looked at the sky in the reservoir area that was still spraying fire and rain, and knew that he must start fighting the fire as much as possible, but before he could shout this order, the officer who had just stood up straight felt as if several big bells were ringing in his head at the same time, and the boom suddenly shook him to his knees and fell to the ground again. With his hands on the ground, the officer felt a sharp nausea rush from his abdomen to his chest and then gush out of his throat. The officer, like several of the soldiers who tried to stand up, was lying on the ground vomiting, and as they began to vomit, they felt a little more remarkable, and now they were aching all over their bodies.

In the direction of the barracks behind this officer, there were also some Qing soldiers, who were far away from the scene of the explosion, but all of them looked staggered, staggering like a group of drunken people, and had to hold on to the things around them to keep their balance. These were some of the other patrolmen and barracks guards on night duty, and although some of them felt sick when they stood up, most of them had not yet vomited, and they wanted to come and see what was going on, but they just couldn't get out of a straight line.

……

Hong Chengchou Fuzhong.

Startled by the roar, one of the generals stuck out his tongue: "What a thunderstorm, today's rain is not small." ”

However, before the words came out, the general himself felt that something was wrong, and ran to the window with the other general in the room, pushed open the window and looked into the sky. I could see the yīn clouds rolling in the sky, but I didn't see a single raindrop, and I didn't see the silver snake scurrying between the clouds. Why can I see the yīn cloud? Because the sky was dyed with a layer of red, and this red light seemed to be coming from the other side of the house.

"Not good!" The one of the two who hadn't been drinking, was quicker to react, and with a scream, he left the window and ran to the other side of the house. The other person paused for a moment, and hurriedly turned to leave, helping Hong Chengchou out of the room and rushing outside.

When he left the room and went to the other side of the house, Hong Chengchou could already see the red light and fireworks rising in the night sky, as well as the colorful fire meteor shower in mid-air.

"Ahh

"Ahh

Seeing that this firelight had already reflected a large area of the sky, the officers and soldiers of the Hongfu all exclaimed, it had only been long since the loud bang just now, how could the fire ignite so quickly?

"This is the direction of the arsenal, right?" Among the crowd, Hong Chengchou was the fastest to recover his judgment ability, and he asked loudly, but no one answered. Everyone around them stared in amazement at the reddened sky overhead, the illuminated night sky was expanding dramatically, rapidly becoming brighter, and the fire was growing more than anyone expected. Seeing this, Hong Chengchou knew that he couldn't delay any longer, so he scolded in a low voice: "Two wine bags and rice bags, incapable of misleading the country!" ”

As soon as he heard that Mr. Boryeong Qian went to the arsenal late at night, Hong Chengchou felt that something was wrong, but this person had the audacity to set fire to the arsenal, which was really unexpected to him. This kind of sabotage around Kunming, which is heavily armed, seems to Hong Chengchou to be similar to suicide. Of course, exchanging a few lives for a military warehouse of more than 100,000 troops, the other party probably thinks it is very cost-effective.

"Go to the arsenal immediately to put out the fire." Hong Chengchou felt that the arsenal was so large that it might not be burned out in a moment and a half, and the large amount of materials stored in it was very important, many of which were produced for many years and transported to Kunming with the army. The primary goal now is no longer to arrest people. Hong Chengchou reassigned the task, and he asked a general to immediately rush to the arsenal with all the people at hand, call all the Qing soldiers he encountered along the way, and try his best to extinguish the fire in the arsenal and salvage the materials in it as much as possible.

In addition, Hong Chengchou sent two more teams to patrol the neighborhood around the arsenal. He felt that after the other party blatantly set this fire, most of them didn't want to leave alive, and might light more fires around. Hong Chengchou sent men and horses to search these places carefully, and if he saw someone arson, he would arrest the culprit and put out the fire.

After completing these deployments, Hong Chengchou, just in case, also ordered several soldiers to inform the various city gates with his order arrows, strictly prohibiting anyone from leaving Kunming City, even if they claimed to be Wu Sangui's personal guards, if they encountered such people, they must be detained first, and then send someone to verify their identity with the Pingxi Palace.

Hong Chengchou is not very pessimistic, he has encountered many fine arsons in the past, even if hundreds of fine works are done together, they are controlled by Hong Chengchou, and they have not made much movement, and today the other party does not have too many manpower. Although the thunder just now gave people an ominous premonition, Hong Chengchou felt that although there were not many guards in the arsenal, there was a barracks nearby, and the fire should be able to be controlled quickly—the damage would definitely be great, but it might not be irreparable.

Seeing that his subordinates would take the soldiers in Qi Mansion and lead the team to leave the Hong Mansion, Hong Chengchou looked at the fire again. He didn't really see it, because his eyes were already very bad—it became difficult to read words, and it often seemed like a mist was in front of him. Hong Chengchou ordered someone to inform Wu Sangui again, but he decided not to mention his judgment of the president of Baoning Qian, and the priority at this time was to put out the fire rather than distinguish responsibility. Moreover, Hong Chengchou believed that Wu Sangui would soon be able to guess what was going on, and there was no need for him to make King Pingxi angry. In the message he sent to Wu Sangui, he just asked the latter to mobilize all his people to participate in the firefighting.

After issuing this series of emergency orders, Hong Chengchou thought about it for a while, and decided to go to the front in person to supervise his generals to put out the fire at close range, so as not to cause someone to go on a business trip at this time and bring unnecessary losses to the Qing army in Yunnan - a full-scale attack on Li Dingguo's troops was about to be launched, and every cent of material was important at this time, so that the Qing army could achieve a decisive victory earlier and destroy the last Han court. Hong Chengchou has been looking forward to this day for many years, and this dream has always inspired him to work harder. Thinking of this, Hong Chengchou hurriedly went back to the house to change his clothes.

However, the development of the fire was far faster than Hong Chengchou imagined, and no one was able to enter the scene of the fire, and it was doubtful whether it made sense to enter the original place of the fire after the explosion. The Qing army barracks, which was pinned on by Hong Chengchou and was only separated by a wall from the arsenal, also had many tents that began to catch fire at this time. The camp was almost bathed in a meteor shower because of the proximity, and when the soldiers woke up to the loud noise, they saw some red particles of sulfur burning through the tents overhead, directly onto their bedding.

For a time, there was a loud uproar in the barracks, some people were so burned that they shouted, and the soldiers who were not burned also jumped up one after another, and there were many sudden flames in the camp that was already full of the smell of sulfur and gunpowder. The officers poured out to maintain order, and many of them joined the soldiers in staring at the flames rising from the sky next door, and none of them knew what was going on.

In the two or three streets around the warehouse, the houses were more or less covered with sparks, most of which were sprayed into the air, and most of the remaining gunpowder that was swept into the air and exploded turned into green smoke. As for the sparks that were still not extinguished when they landed, most of them quickly burned out on their own.

But there are also sparks that scorch the thatch on the roofs of houses or smoke the planks into a black circle before they go out. Gradually, from the browned, crooked thatch and blackened wood, puffs of smoke rose and then burst into bright flames.

The entire circle of streets closest to the warehouses was lit up from all over the place at about the same moment, and unlike the barracks, which were full of soldiers, the flames of these uninhabited residential areas were uncared for. Soon small strands of fire formed large clusters of flames, or merged and began to consume the untended houses.

While the fire in the first ring of streets grew, the houses further away from the warehouse began to be illuminated by the firelight, and the sparks that fell from the roofs of these streets were less dense, and the flames were much more sparse, and they did not merge quickly, but they continued to burn over time. Farther away, tongues of fire appeared in clusters in the east and west, but they were small in density, and most of them burned alone and alone, and there may have been only a bunch of inconspicuous flames in several houses, and these uncontrolled flames were slowly licking the paper on the windows and the thatch on the roof.

The neighborhood closest to the warehouse district was already on fire, with flames rising several meters high and crackling and popping on large and ferocious burning houses. A strong and powerful hot wind was generated in the area of the fire, blowing up bundles of thatch and sticks of wood that were still burning into the air, and these things were blown farther and more widely by the strong winds in the air.

Seeing such a fire, the Qing soldiers, who had planned to go to the reservoir area to put out the fire and at least protect their camp, immediately abandoned these unsaved neighborhoods and their barracks, and quickly withdrew to the upwind area, never taking any control over the growing fire.

The flames spread rapidly through the deserted residential area, and soon swept several blocks, one of which burned straight towards the granary of Kunming.

The loud noise also alarmed the guards of the grain depot and the five hundred Qing soldiers stationed at the edge of the grain depot, who at first felt that it was none of their business, and looked at the fire in the distance and talked about it, expressing their speculations about this incident. Some stern officers in the barracks also ordered the soldiers to return to the camp immediately and wait for orders.

But to everyone's surprise, they didn't wait for the order to put out the fire, and the fire came straight to their camp and warehouse.

Unhindered and controlled, the fire dragon swept through hundreds of houses, and the surging wall of fire was already more than ten meters high, and it was still far from the barracks, but the soldiers already needed to look up to see it. The wind was whistling in their ears, and the soldiers saw that the fire dragon that threatened the warehouse and the camp had not yet arrived, but they could already see the debris it had thrown up—chairs, tables, door panels, thatched roofs, and countless things were burning and flying in the sky, falling down on the camp, the warehouse, and the surrounding blocks.